City Library – Rakhshanda Jalil’s Urdu Books + Her Forthcoming Urdu Festival, Central Delhi
A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Can you dream of touching with your own hand Ghalib’s handwritten poem? Well, just visit author Rakhshanda Jalil’s private library. One freezing evening, Ms Jalil unfolds this priceless object on…
City Library – Aanchal Malhotra’s Books, Safdarjung Enclave
A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Love books? Then envy Aanchal Malhotra. Her parents run Bahrisons Booksellers, India’s most successful independently owned bookstore. One morning The Delhi Walla enters Ms Malhotra’s book-lined home in Safdarjang Enclave….
City Library – Namita Gokhale’s Books, Safdarjung Development Area
A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The books are everywhere, including under her bed. One afternoon The Delhi Walla visits Namita Gokhale at her home in South Delhi’s poetically named neighborhood of Safdarjung Development Area. “I…
City Library – Yunus Jaffery’s Books, Ganj Mir Khan
A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One morning The Delhi Walla enters the library of the city’s great Persian scholar S.M. Yunus Jaffery at his home in the congested Walled City neighborhood of Ganj Mir Khan….
City Library – Bhaskar Ghose’s Books, Mayur Vihar I
A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] He is the stuff dreams are made on. Bhaskar Ghose has read the entire Shakespeare—all the plays, all the sonnets. He has even read Cymbeline (who reads Cymbeline?)! One afternoon…
City Library – Dayanita Singh’s Books, Vasant Vihar
A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] There are bookshelves everywhere, even outside, just beside the door. One afternoon, The Delhi Walla steps inside Dayanita Singh’s studio. The internationally acclaimed author-photographer’s pad in south Delhi’s Vasant Vihar…
City Library – Barbara Del Mercato’s Books, Venice
A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake, wrote poet Wallace Stevens. And if the lake is too far, step into the poetic world of Steven’s ardent devotee…
City Library – Riccardo Calimani’s Books, Venice
A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] The weekend edition of The International New York Times is lying in one corner. It has a story on the ancient Jewish district of Venice. The full-page feature, timed to…
City Library – Renato Maestro’s Books, Venice Ghetto
A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] Thick yellowing pages sewed within leather-bound volumes. Ancient threads escaping out of cracked spines. Centuries-old letters tucked inside spotlessly white envelopes. Bundles of very old newspapers. And boxes after boxes…
City Library – Jeet Thayil’s Books, Safdarjung Development Area
A vanishing world. [Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi] One afternoon The Delhi Walla visited the home of Jeet Thayil, the poet and novelist in his 50s, who lives with his partner, designer and photographer Akanksha Sharma, and cat,…
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